Winter arts and heritage events kick off at Coole Park

THE Coole Park Winter Programme is starting a little earlier than usual this year, with the first event taking place next Monday. The details of the 2010 programme, which is part of the Coole Park bi-annual series of cultural events, were revealed this week.
The heritage course starts on Monday between 8pm and 10pm and will continue through all the Mondays in November. This year the course is entitled Reading and Understanding the Coole Landscape.
Christy Cunniffe is the first speaker of the season. He will touch on the built heritage at Coole.
Other speakers on the subsequent Mondays include Finola O’Kane Crimmins on 18th Century Designed Landscapes, Marie Boran on Estates and Landscape in East Galway from 1800-1900, Mark Greene on Reading the Landscape of Coole from Maps, Bridin Feeney on Digital Mapping and Biodiversity, Caitriona Carlin on Biodiversity at Coole, an NPWS representative on the management of the Coole Park Nature Reserve and Paul Naesen on the Landscape Archaeology of Coole Park and Environs.
The arts element of the programme begins with drama on Thursday, October 21. Teatro ao Largo presents Mighty Tales, stories including the Acorn Man and The Tale of Francis Flute told through song and rhyming verse, featuring their original Mechanical Theatre. This show is suitable for an audience of all ages.
On the two Sundays during mid-term break, Coole Park hosts family events. On Sunday, October 24, Cups and Crowns present Blenny the Waterdaughter at 4pm. This is preceded at 2pm by Coole trees in winter and outdoor nature activities, including scavenger hunts.
On Sunday, October 31 at 2pm there is a puppet-box play about how valuable it is to have time by Sorcas Quircas, entitled Momo. This is followed at 4pm by a concert by Emmet Scanlan and his band.
On Thursday, October 28, there is a feast of poetry with poets Tom Mathews and Ger Reidy. On subsequent Thursdays in November, Coole plays host to performances by Dog and String Theatre, traditional musicians Charlie Harris and friends, Eleanor Feeley performing The Changing Moon and finally Sean Tyrell bringing some of the well known poems to music and song.
The outreach programme also continues this winter with Yourman’s Puppets Schools performing in one of the local national schools and a place names project is taking place in Kiltartan National School.
The events are organised by The Friends of Coole in partnership with the National Parks and Wildlife Services, Galway County Council, Galway Rural Development, Galway Education Centre, Fáilte Ireland West and the community of Gort.
The 2010 Winter Programme brochure is now available from Coole Park and is also widely available in Gort and other surrounding towns in the area.
The programme aims to provide a series of high-quality multi-disciplinary arts and heritage events to as wide and inclusive a local audience as possible in a site that has national and international cultural status.
This year’s winter programme of events continues until March and endeavours to showcase locally-based artists and lectures on locally-based topics.
The programme was initiated in 2005 on a pilot basis and its success to date is largely due to the strong partnership of agencies and active community involvement in its organisation, delivery and support.
All events in the programme are free. Contact Coole Park Visitor Centre to get a programme or for details on any of the events at 091 631804.